


Soul Bound

by AMaskOnTwoFaces



Series: A Mask On One Shots [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: "Voldemort (Olympic Opening Ceremony)", And now am wildly curious, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Did you know that was a tag?, Gen, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, Harry Potter was a Horcrux, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle if you wish to squint that way, He's still a relatively functioning human, I did not, Immortal Harry Potter, Insane Harry Potter, Master of Death Harry Potter, Mildly insane, Necromancer Harry Potter, Necromancy, One Shot, POV Teddy Lupin, Resurrection, Set several decades after the events of Harry Potter, Short One Shot, Translation Available, abuse of commas, abuse of dashes, abuse of ellipsis, abuse of semicolons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26435347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMaskOnTwoFaces/pseuds/AMaskOnTwoFaces
Summary: Tom--for he must be Tom, can't be anything other than Tom in Teddy's eyes if they are to go through with this--opens his slate grey eyes.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Teddy Lupin & Harry Potter
Series: A Mask On One Shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866877
Comments: 6
Kudos: 86





	Soul Bound

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I promised this work weeks ago when I originally posted "In the earth beneath our feet" (which, holy **** y'all, your feedback on that is still astounding), but I had horrifically over-explained sentences in the beginning of this that I just never had the motivation to muddle through and edit, so... here we are.
> 
> Like "In the earth beneath out feet", this is another plot bunny from several years ago that was originally supposed to be some long, multi-chaptered fic, but I have no other plot I really want to explore for it, so I've cleaned it up into a one-shot for your perusal.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> EDIT 9/15/20:   
> Translation into Portuguese now available:  
> https://www.wattpad.com/story/240979428-soul-bound
> 
> Thank you to May2305 for the honor of having a translated work!   
> They also added a cute cover art to their translation that I love so much!

After three days of waiting--breaths baited in both anticipation and fear of what their magic might have wrought--the man’s eyes open. 

Tom--for he must be Tom, can't be anything other than Tom in Teddy's eyes if they are to go through with this--opens his slate grey eyes. He blinks at the ceiling for several seconds, no doubt trying to process where he might be, before he suddenly springs upright, hand flying to the sleeve where he prefers to keep his wand. Tom's face twists into a grimace upon discovering his unarmed status in an unknown situation, but it quickly smooths out into something pleasant and seemingly open when he notices Teddy sitting in the room with him. 

(They had taken turns guarding their project; not knowing what kind of state Tom would be in when he finally awoke; not wanting to give any room for things to go horrifically wrong. Harry--for this is truly  _ his  _ project--should have noticed the moment Tom awoke, and is no doubt on his way to the guest room-- _ Tom’s _ room now--if he isn't already standing unnoticed outside the door. While perhaps Harry would be the one with enough power to take Tom down if he ended up waking too violent, it was more lucky that Teddy was the one standing guard at this moment, as he isn't anyone Tom knows or would recognize, and is thus safer from any immediate attacks.)

"Hello. My apologies if I caused you any surprise just now, I was just startled to find myself in an unfamiliar place. Would you happen to know where I am?"

Teddy, of course, doesn't believe Tom's genial act for a second, but that didn't mean that he can't appreciate the skill of a fellow imitator. He stands, not on ceremony, but to better defend himself should the need arise. 

"Of course. Welcome to the New Peverell Family Home. We've been waiting for you to wake, Tom Riddle," Teddy watches with internal glee as Tom struggles not to react to his hated muggle name with the disgust or shock or whatever he must be feeling at having an veritable stranger know his buried identity, let alone dare to utter that name to his face. "My godfather is the master of this house, as both Lord Peverell and Master of Death," Teddy definitely enjoys the way Tom's eyes unmistakably widen at that second title, no doubt familiar with the concept from his studies into the various methods of immortality. "You've been dead for 36 years, but hopefully my godfather should be along soon to explain why we've revived you again."

If nothing else, that last statement hit home with Tom. "I've been dead?" he rasps, "Truly dead?"

"Truly dead," Teddy replies, serious in the face of Tom's naked, unmasked fear. "All of your horcruxes had been destroyed. However, that does mean that your soul is now complete again. We'll find out with time if our theories are correct and you'll regain the mental and magical strength that had waned due to your soul's previous split."

There's a knock at the door, and they both turn to look. "That should be my godfather now," Teddy says to Tom, "Come in!" he calls. 

The door opens, and there's a moment of silence. Then Tom breaths, "Harry Potter."

Harry smiles, "Hello Tom. Good to see you up and about."

Tom stands still for a second, unsure of how to handle his arch-enemy cum savior. His eyes flick back to Teddy, "I heard I've been dead for 36 years." He says to Harry, voice still quiet, somber. 

"Yes, you were," Harry replies, matching his tone. 

"Then how are you still so…"

"Young?"

Tom nods. 

Harry smiles again, this time noticeable more bitter as he steps into the room, "Didn't you hear? I'm the Master of Death now. I'm immortal, thanks to you. Which is rather ironic, considering."

"Thanks to me? Thanks to me!?" Tom is visibly alarmed, voice raising as he seems to grow taller in his gathering indignation. "What did I do?! Do it to me!" He storms over to Harry, grasping his shoulders as if he intends to shake the answer to immortality out of him. 

"You killed me."

Tom stops in his tracks, "... what?" he whispers. 

Harry lifts his chin, facing down Tom. Facing down the man whose existence has shaped his entire life. Facing down the man whose face has gone pale, deathly white as he learns that the only true way to get what he wants is to go through his biggest fear. 

Harry lifts his chin and says, "You killed me," to the man he killed back. 

* * *

“A hole.” Teddy says, trying to keep his voice even, “In your soul.”

“Yes,” Harry nods, “I grew up with more soul than average--lived almost 16 years with just that little bit more--and my body adjusted to that. Ever since I lost that horcrux inside me, I’ve felt... hollow.”

Teddy’s too young to remember Harry from back when he was actually a horcrux, but he has seen the frequent empty gazes, knows he has never seen Harry smile so widely as he did in those pictures from his school days. “Hollow…” Teddy echos, hollowly.

“Yes,” Harry nods, “And since all of my own actual soul is still intact, the only way to fill the hole is with Vold--with  _ Tom’s  _ soul. And the only way to do  _ that  _ is to bring Tom Riddle back to life.”

“Bring... _ Tom Riddle _ ...back to life?” Teddy echos faintly.

“Yes,” Harry nods, “It’ll be a bit more work than your normal necromantic raising of the dead, what with multiple pieces of the soul killed at different places at different times, not to mention not having even a  _ bit _ of his body to form a physical connection to, but it’ll be worth it if I can feel  _ whole _ again.”

And really, when your eternally youthful hermit of a godfather, the one who casually practices necromancy on his weekends, decides to raises his arch-nemesis from the dead--the very wizard who was single-handedly responsible for the last two wizarding wars--just so his limitless days don’t feel quite so empty anymore, well, you have to wonder what the world is coming to.

“Sure,” Teddy says, though to this day he still can’t say quite why he agreed, “I suppose you have a plan?”

“Yes,” Harry nods, then smiles, “It’ll be fine.”

* * *

It’s all so horribly…  _ domestic _ .

Tom is sat at the kitchen table, scowling at Harry’s back as the Master of Death putters about, making them all breakfast.

It’s going on two in the afternoon, but as far as eccentricities go, making breakfast in the middle of the day is fairly harmless, so Teddy lets it go without comment.

He’s sat at the table diagonally from the ex Dark Lord, trying to stay out of the wizard’s sightlines to hopefully keep the man’s ire on less… _ mortal _ things. 

Harry is the only one in the room whose mood could in any way be described as ‘cheerful’. If Teddy is being honest, Harry looks positively ecstatic; practically bouncing around the kitchen in his excitement. It’s so much energy that it’s contagious, and Teddy can’t help but to smile back as he’s handed his food.

Tom, on the other hand, tries to battle Harry’s sunniness with the force of his glower, but not even he is a match for the power of Harry’s glee, and he grudgingly mutters a thanks as he’s handed a plate as well.

“Well, isn’t this great!” Harry exclaims, when they’ve finished eating some time later. Teddy cannot for the life of him tell if his godfather is serious or not, considering that they spent the entire meal with nothing but the scrape of forks against plates as a soundtrack.

“Do you have a library?” Tom interrupts, before Harry can continue with whatever crazy conversation topic he had in mind. He looks younger now, now that he’s less angry and more just...sullen. He could almost be mistaken for a wizard just out of Hogwarts, not a century-old megalomaniac.

“Of course!” Harry says brightly, leading Tom out of the room as he chats lightly about a blood ritual he happened upon the other day. Teddy’s not sure of the last time he saw Harry so happy, or for so long. He blinks. He’s not sure he’s  _ ever _ seen Harry this happy, not even in those old school pictures of his.

Well, he can’t believe he’s saying this, but this new Tom Riddle might actually be good for Harry.

And Teddy will do his best to make sure that what is good for Harry is good for the world. Or, at the very least, not apocalyptically catastrophic. 

Eh, same difference. 


End file.
